Architects shouldn't be afraid to copy successful ideas like Assemble's pop-up cinema, says Phineas Harper in his latest Opinion column.

Dezeen readers, you have a dark obsession. Not an obsession with chic staircase porn, IKEA hacks or the latest gossip engulfing Bjarke Ingels, something more insidious. It is an obsession that clogs the comments section of this site and ultimately weakens the power of architecture. You are all obsessed with originality.
A recurring pastime of the Dezeen reader commentariat is the calling out of designs for being "unoriginal" or "copies". This addiction to novelty is, ironically, nothing new. Across architectural culture we dread the label of unoriginality like a curse. We deride the derivative, we mock mimics, we fear facsimiles. Call us dull, call us sellouts, call us gentrifiers ? just don't call us copycats. I believe this sneering snobbery of derivation is deeply flawed and at odds with the potential of architecture as a collective creative force. Much of the best cultural production across other arts comes from the clear consensus that iterating is inventive. Rather than shaming the copyists, architects should instead urgently rally to the cause in defence of architectural cover versions.
Across architectural culture we dread the label of unoriginality like a curse
Call them reboots, spinoffs, remixes or otherwise, almost every artistic industry benefits from the established and fruitful notion of the cover vers...